Arians, who called Brown “elite” prior to the offseason workouts got underway, said Wednesday that Brown wasn’t the same tackle he watched on tape prior to him suffering a torn triceps back in August of 2012.

“The tackle we evaluated (from) 2011 was a heck of a left tackle,” Arians said. “The tackle that got back isn’t the same guy.”

Keim, who said Wednesday that it was in the best interest of the organization to move on from Brown right now because they didn’t view him as being in the team’s future plans, also weighed in with his thoughts on the former first-round draft pick.

“Levi Brown was not living up to our expectations on the field,” Keim said.

The Cardinals obviously viewed Brown as their own experienced version of Steelers second-year left tackle Mike Adams and decided to dump him for a conditional draft pick instead of releasing him outright.

As I mentioned earlier, the Steelers only risk involved in acquiring Brown will be whatever amount of money they choose to pay him in the form of a signing bonus should they choose to restructure his 2013 base salary in order to get cap compliant. Well, that and the conditional draft pick.

Should Brown wind up not being any better than Adams, they can easily dump him after the season is over.

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Awesome! Bob Labriola reporting Levi Brown was re-negotiated down to vet minimum before trade! Colbert and company no longer looking quite so foolish.

Christopher Wilkes

Nice.

Kevin Gobleck

Who knows maybe league min. and a trade is enough to motivate him to get back to his former self

Mkeller

I haven’t seen that report, but if true that’s a shrewd move and less frightening than needing to restructure another veteran contract to fit the salary. I still think Colberts time has passed. This is…as Dave writes…a low level gamble with no long term risk. Why not?

chris ward

Good move by Colbert going out and getting Levi. Steelers had to do something about the tackle position.

Kenneth Wilt

They gave him exactly 4 games to return to form. Aren’t they generous? I am willing to let him get in here and get his feet wet before firing off that this was a bad move.

Mike Carroll

Oh, it’s a low level risk now that we know he is getting the vet minimum. I would not have said that before since it would have required clearing cap space they don’t have and this team doesn’t deserve.

Kevin Gobleck

It’s true i also saw it

Shannon Stephenson

Thats great he will not cost much but we are all missing the point on this article. The Cards let him go because he was no longer a viable option for them at LT. Not sure anyone is seeing this. Maybe he will rebound but I do not expect much better play from him than Adams.

http://pittsburghsportsinat.blogspot.com/ bgsteelfan

What else is he going to say? “He’s still elite but we gave him away for nothing.”, “I was wrong about calling him elite.”? Of course he is going to say that.

It’s a low risk, high reward move for us.

http://pittsburghsportsinat.blogspot.com/ bgsteelfan

But if the reports about his salary are true, any improvement at all for vet minimum at this point is a good move.

The AZ fans sites are welcoming his release.. It sounded like an upgrade at first. Vet minimum , Still was hoping they would try to get an upgrade of substance.

WilliamSekinger

Well, they are about as generous as Steeler fans giving Adams exactly 4 games at LT before turning on him…

http://pittsburghsportsinat.blogspot.com/ bgsteelfan

I just saw that they were posted now. I’ll be doing some stuff on there tonight.

dkoy85

Cardinals already knew what Brown can do and they didn’t give him the time to get back to his old self- Adams on the other hand should be IMPROVING not regressing! Do you see the difference William??

WilliamSekinger

No I really don’t. Adams has been left on an island with little help from backs or TEs against 2 of the best pass rushers in the game today. He did poorly. So what? I know maybe we should have drafted a top 5 tackle…that would fix our problems! Oh wait…every Tackle taken in the draft this year is doing just as poorly as Adams…

dkoy85

I see your point but Adams is being beat regularly and beat bad! Regardless something had to change and that change is hopefully going to make Adams do some soul searching in that huge body of his. He should be playing nasty- not soft and slow.

I hope Brown can come in and teach Adams and help him become the player he should and can be. As for right now he deserves to be benched and learn behind somebody with more experience.

WilliamSekinger

We can agree there. Benching can be a good thing for a struggling player. IF he takes it as a challenge to improve. Just glad we have someone to step in for him now. Beachum is a great swing guy, but he doesn’t belong at LT through the course of an entire season.

dkoy85

Exactly!

gringo527

The Cardinals are still on the hook to pay his remaining salary for 2013. He is not losing any money this year. I think you guys are getting a good LT

gringo527

Cardinals do this a lot to save money, find an excuse to trade good players to save money.

Whcr Communicators

low risk, high reward..my favorite type of project

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